1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to systems, processes, and computer program products for the sourcing, scheduling, sales, billing, inventory management, product presentation, delivery, customer management and other functions relating to the provision of goods and services, particularly in the retail sales environment.
2. Description of Related Art
The efficient provision of goods and services to customers by retailers involves a variety of discrete tasks on the part of a retailer, including, without limitation, sourcing and scheduling inventory, product presentation and management, pricing, delivery and installation scheduling, customer billing, inventory management, vendor management, vendor payment, and/or customer management. Moreover, delivery and/or installation of purchased products present separate, but often desired or necessary tasks, particularly for customers looking for a turnkey solution. Inefficiencies in the implementation of these tasks can be detrimental to the financial performance of a retailer's business, including errors in product selection and ordering, excess inventory costs, lost sales, and customer dissatisfaction, just to name a few. Further, ineffective or inefficient execution of these tasks impacts a retailer's ability to keep up with changing demands of the marketplace, all of which results in lost sales and lost opportunities. Since different individuals and/or departments within a retailer implement many of these tasks, it can be difficult to manage the implementation of these various tasks so as to insure that the tasks are completed timely and accurately, and in the most cost effective manner. These tasks (or the problems created by ineffective and/or inefficient execution of them) are common to retailers in a variety of fields or markets, including consumer electronics, household appliances, furniture, clothing, sporting equipment, motorized vehicles, toys and playground equipment, groceries, and home improvement.
For example, a home improvement project can be a daunting task for a homeowner lacking experience in planning and implementing such a project, particularly a project that involves a number of different products and/or services such as remodeling a kitchen or bathroom, which likely involves electrical, plumbing, appliances, cabinetry, flooring, etc. Often, such home improvement projects require an extensive amount of planning, including measurements of the space to be improved, selection of various products to be installed, selection of the more detailed aspects of the products, such as colors, textures, finishes, etc., delivery of the products and, importantly, their installation. Often, not all of the desired products are in stock at a particular home improvement store and vendors (either through catalogs, Internet, etc.) must be consulted, which is often a tedious process inasmuch as such secondary sources may not have sufficient details to visualize the expected result. In addition, the planning, design and selection tasks can also involve consulting with multiple sales persons, contractors and other parties. For instance, a customer that wants to refinish a kitchen may need to interact with a cabinet designer, a flooring specialist, a millwork specialist, an appliance specialist and various representatives of other specialties such as hardware, lighting and plumbing. Decisions must be made with respect to each of these areas to achieve an acceptable completed project.
In addition to selecting the building materials, appliances, accessories, etc. to be used in the project, the homeowner must schedule both the delivery and the installation of the purchased items. It is typically not acceptable that all items are delivered at once or in a random, drawn out fashion. Indeed, it is often critical that the items arrive in a predetermined order that allows for effective installation. Furthermore, homeowners often desire that contractors or skilled installers perform some or all of the necessary installation. In both cases it is necessary that delivery of items and installation be scheduled relative to one another to permit acceptable and timely completion of the project.
In addition to the difficulties of planning and designing the project, and selecting the necessary materials and products, the homeowner is also typically concerned about the overall cost of the project. The cost of each home improvement project includes not only the cost of materials, tools, appliances, accessories, etc., but also the delivery and installation of these items. Installation costs are difficult to estimate due to the need to contact multiple contractors, the reliability of which may be unknown to the customer. Further, the planning and design of, and selection of products for, the home improvement project may need to be modified if the overall cost of the project exceeds the amount budgeted by the customer. As a result, the planning, design, and selection tasks may have to undergo several iterations. All of these difficulties make it very desirable for a customer to have tools that facilitate the planning, design, selection, delivery, installation, and cost management of the home improvement project.
Aside from the homeowner, the home improvement retailer must attempt to make as many different products and services available to its customers, must facilitate efficient delivery of the products and services and often must provide installation services. In addition, the retailer must coordinate customer management among its customer representatives, management of sales opportunities, ordering of inventory and any custom or configurable products selected by a customer, vendor payments, and customer billing. Ineffective and/or inefficient management of these tasks can result in lost sales opportunities, returns, etc., which can adversely affect the profitability of the retailer.
In seeking to integrate aspects of the sales process, others have proposed interactive systems to assist customers with the design and ordering of products and services. For example, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2001/0044749 to Heisler et al. (“Heisler”) discloses a home improvement system 10 embodied in a web site allowing customers to identify the materials needed for a project and then to order the corresponding materials. The home improvement system can communicate with the customer 50 and a third-party business 60. The web site includes a collection of software tools for designing home improvements such as decks, shelves, kitchens or bathrooms. The software tools can include “solution tools” that facilitate calculations of needed materials. For instance, the solution tools can calculate an amount of wallpaper, ceiling tiles or concrete necessary to complete a project. According to one embodiment, Heisler discloses the use of graphics to lay out the property perimeter, home and landscape features for designing a sprinkler system. During design, the home improvement system can suggest parts and accessories from a list of sprinkler products. Once a design is finalized, it can be transmitted to the third-party business, which can modify the design to fit existing inventory and make other design suggestions. The home improvement system can then output a shopping list that contains information identifying the various parts, prices and assembly references to facilitate purchases. Alternatively, the purchase may be submitted electronically to the third-party business and the materials picked up later at the business.
Although Heisler addresses some of the needs of the customer and retailer and, in particular, assisting the customer with the design of the home improvement project, Heisler fails to provide an integrated solution and, more specifically, it fails to address a number of the tasks involved with facilitating the sale, including coordination of installation services for those customers not wanting to install the project themselves, scheduling, billing, vendor payments and inventory management for the retailer. In addition, Heisler does not provide for interaction with sales persons, contractors and other parties with important knowledge that may improve the design and selection tasks. With these and other steps not facilitated, the customer is still required to carry most of the design to execution with little assistance and the retailer is still required to coordinate all of its procurement, billing, vendor payment and customer management tasks. Similar problems affect customers and retailers in other fields, including consumer electronics, household appliances, furniture, clothing, sporting equipment, toys and playground equipment, groceries, and motorized vehicles, just to name a few.
It would be advantageous to have a system that is not only capable of facilitating product design and/or selection, but that can also facilitate execution of the design, selection and sales tasks for the customer, retailer and vendors. It would be further advantageous if facilitating execution of the design, selection and sales tasks included involving customer representatives, vendors and other third parties that are not readily available to, or known by, the customer; allowed the selection and scheduling of related services, such as detailed measurement, delivery, installation, maintenance, warranty, etc., if necessary; and facilitated customer management, management of sales opportunities, inventory management, vendor management, vendor payments, customer billing for the retailer, and communication between each of these different entities.